A beautiful Welcome Globe antique stove

The royal blue color of the stove caught my eye immediately. As big and noble as it was, it was still partly hidden behind an oak table that obscured its full beauty.

But the colors just stood out in the dimly lit antique mall, which I came across in Georgia over the holidays while I was visiting my family. It is one of several items that I stumbled across on a few antiquing jaunts last week, and I’ll be writing about them this week.

At the Yesterday’s Antique Market, every booth seemed to have been dressed up for Christmas with the hands and eyes of a very good interior designer. These didn’t seem to have been done by dealers with little talent for style or decoration; the items were draped and hung and placed strategically to impart a certain feel and atmosphere. They exuded warmth and homeliness.

The seller of the March Brownback Welcome Globe stove had placed period items on the top.

The booth with the royal blue antique stove wasn’t much different, but the stove itself needed room to breathe – and show itself off.

The stove was in remarkably good condition for its age, and the owner had placed vintage cooking items atop it, including an old kettle, spoon and small brass pot.

Another view of the March Brownback Welcome Globe stove.

I could imagine it in a large kitchen – not necessarily for use (the sign also noted that the stove was an “Exceptional Decorator Piece”) but to add a specialness to the space. It would bring a smile to my face every time I’d enter the kitchen.

With such a lovely item, I obviously wanted to know more about the maker, and my first search turned up inquiries from owners with a March Brownback stove who were looking for the same information. They apparently didn’t find much and neither did I, but I kept looking.

I found a salesman’s sample of a small Brownback stove, along with a traveling case and original brochure, that sold at auction last year for $425. A porcelain sign for the company’s furnaces and stoves sold at the same auction for $1,400.

So, its name and products are still popular – as they apparently had been since the mid-1800s. The man behind the company was James Brownback, who came from a family that had found its way from Germany in the 17th century and became one of the most noted citizens of Chester County, outside Philadelphia, according toan 1895 book on prominent citizens of Montgomery County, PA.

A close-up view of the March Brownback Welcome Globe stove.

Brownback bought an interest in a stove foundry in 1868 called March, Lisle & Co., which itself had been around since 1848. The partners moved the company to Pottstown, PA, in 1891 and incorporated it as March Brownback Stove Co. He was selected president, and made it one of the most prosperous and well-respected manufacturers of ranges and other such products. By 1895, the company employed 150 men, as the book noted, indicating its success.

He later bought and sold a furnace company, was a director of a land company and held stock in a textile company. “Politically, Mr. Brownback was an ardent Republican and an uncompromising protectionist,” according to the book.

The company, apparently like other stove manufacturers, produced engraved catalogs of its products. The 1902 book “Sanitary and Heating Age” mentioned the company’s Catalog 54 offerings. The book noted that the company had been making ranges for 54 years, offered under the “generic name Globe with the prefixes Electric, New Victor, Rival Victor, New Welcome, Expert Welcome, New Prize and Prize” that burned coal or wood.

A side view of the March Brownback Welcome Globe stove.

The company also made warming closets and pipe shelves, furnaces, and heating stoves, according to the 1902 book. The Bright Crown stove used soft or hard coal, and was nicely illuminated in mica on the front and sides with nickel decoration, along with some cheaper heaters. Oak heaters included the Crown Oak and Prize Oak, which had an “artistic cast iron front.”

I could find none of the Brownback stoves for sale on eBay or elsewhere, so I’m not sure what they are worth. The asking price for the Welcome Globe stove at the antique market was around $2,400. If you have one, here’s a blog post I wrote about how to determine the worthof your items.

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Our houses are filled with memorabilia and artifacts that are part of our family's history and legacy. But far too often we don't know what we have or assume it's worth very little or nothing.

What valuable items are in your home or a family member's home?

I can show you what to look for, how to research its market value online, how to get it appraised by a licensed appraiser, and whether to keep it, donate it or sell it.

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About Sherry Howard

I started going to auctions to fuel my love for African American art – but at a bargain. I love the old masters: Lois Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Hughie Lee-Smith. I wanted to find their works and discover other veteran artists whose works may have been hiding in an attic or basement, and forgotten.

I’m a journalist by profession: I was a newspaper reporter and editor. Now, I’m taking what I did as a journalist – peeling back the covers of people’s lives and writing about what I found – and applying it to auctions. And I’m loving it.

Visit me often to see what I come up with. I would also like to share stories and photos of what you find and your collections. Click my Contact page.

What is my stuff worth?

Here are some tips for things you can do on your own to help determine what your items are worth:

First, try the web. Search for items similar to yours.
Go to the library or browse at a bookstore. Look through price and collector's guides pertaining to your item.
Get a free or reduced-price appraisal. Find local auction houses in your town and check their websites to see if they offer these quick appraisals. You can find auction houses near you via auctionzip.com.Pay for a real appraisal. This could be your last step or your first step (if you have an item that you already know is valuable).

You can get more detailed information on each of these tips in my blog post on the subject.